COMMENT

EUROPEAN UNION: THE WORLD FROM POLAND

By Colin Graham

WARSAW, 15 JUNE 2007—
The celebrations commemorating the 50th birthday of the European Union on
March 25th allowed the continent’s citizens —or rather more their leaders—
to pat themselves on the back for what a great job they had done in
bringing so many nations together under one economic roof. Though an increasing number of political
allegiances have been formed as well, this also belied the
fact that the EU is to its core as divided as it
is in many senses a miraculously unifying body of nations.

The fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 80s/ early 90s was what really
alllowed most of the self-congratulation. (Can you image a big birthday
party in the German capital if the Berlin Wall was still standing?) But in
many ways this seemed quite empty and devoid of real sense against the
backdrop of what is happening in countries, such as Poland, which in the
early-80s were seen as the beacon of freedom against the Communism that
had so harshly split European from European. Right-wing conservatism from
the East and bureaucratic superciliousness from the EU’s headquarters in
Brussels increasingly mean that the Union, as it is rather
over-confidently called, is in danger of becoming a misnomer.

Back then, the Berlin Wall was the most literal manifestation of the
divide that befell Europe with the end of the Second World War and
beginning of the ‘Cold’ variant. Europeans locked in Communist countries
stretching from East Germany to the Soviet Union yearned for the freedom
to travel to the West, and for many their wish was granted with the EU’s
2004 enlargement.

As far as the Poles were concerned, they could not get out soon enough.
Droves living in towns with double-digit unemployment have made the trip
via budget airline or coach to countries such as the UK or Ireland to seek
a better life. Estimates vary, but some suggest that one million have
headed to various parts of the UK alone. Labour shortages have meant they
are more than welcome, particularly for their willingness to work
hard.

But while the emigrants make money, buy British and Irish homes and
seemingly look forward to bright, rosy futures, the country they have left
behind is in much more of an uncertain—arguably even bleak—state, one
which threatens to loosen ties with the rest of the EU, which, ironically,
the departees have so warmly embraced.

The arch-conservative, right-wing populist government that came to
power in 2005 has created an atmosphere in the country that ensures that a
good many of the young, educated Poles who have left will not be returning
any day soon. This, regardless of the fact that regression in politics has
been matched by a quite dramatic economic upturn, and though the open
market and extra EU funding that came with accession can explain much of
this, so can mass emigration for its help in depleting the ranks of the
unemployed.

There are some towns in Poland which are almost deserted. In Czarna
Bialostocka, in the north-east, for instance, around 40 percent of the
5,000 population have gone to the UK to live and work, leaving behind
parents and sometimes spouses and children, whose often meagre incomes are
bolstered by the money sent home to them.

The resulting anomaly is that whereas before the country joined the EU
Poland could boast one of the youngest populations in Europe—mainly
because of the baby-boom that occurred during the Martial Law of 1981— it
now risks becoming one of the oldest.

This helps explain the rise of the conservative parties. Left-wing
satirists milk plenty of mirth from the fact that the ruling party in the
populist coalition— the Law and Justice party—is generally supported by
the elderly. Indeed, pensioners have become recognised as an increasingly
militant and cohesive grouping, whose views are vented by the extreme
right-wing and often anti-Semitic Radio Maryja on a daily basis. The
station is one many over-60s listen to religiously, in both senses of the
word.

But once you go deeper into the heartlands of the conservatives’
support you see that there is more to it than arch-Catholic mania, though
this ingredient can never be completely dismissed in Poland, a country
where around 70 percent of the population believe that Pope John Paul II
routinely performed miracles, according to a recent survey.

Up in the far north-east of Poland a battle has begun that may
determine the country’s ultimate fate as a member of the European Union.
In the town of Augustow and its surrounding villages, a sometimes vicious
conflict has broken out between local residents and the government on the
one hand and the EU and ecological NGO groups on the other, because of
plans to build a by-pass—to be part of the Via-Baltica road linking Warsaw
with Helsinski—through the almost preternaturally beautiful Rospuda
Valley, which is regarded by many environmentalists as containing some of
the last, purely untouched vestiges of natural life in the whole of the
continent.

It is fair to say that the views of the EU and the ecologists have
dominated coverage of the stand-off in the international media, and for
not entirely surprising reasons. Whereas they have well-worn PR tools at
their disposal, the government—noted for its surliness in its dealing with
most things foreign—and the locals, more understandably cut-off from
big-time media contacts— have struggled to present their case Until
recently, that is.

In early April, the ministry of the environment, which supports the
locals’ stance, arranged a visit to the region for members of the
international media, among whom were journalists from Japan, the UK,
Holland, Canada and the USA.

The present author was one of the party and went along as an ardent
sceptic of all things associated with the current Polish government.

As we flew over the Rospuda Valley wetlands by helicopter, it was
impossible not to be struck by the genuinely unspoiled landscape. On the
ground, the sight was even more exquisite.

That the government would want to ruin this exemplar of natural beauty
seemed the most heinuous of crimes but the town of Augustow feels an even
greater one is being perpetrated against it on a daily basis. Being there
in person, however, you see that this happens by the second.

On the main road going through the town there is a unremitting stream
of juggernauts and the noise has to heard to be believed. They are the
consequence of the increase in trade between Europe and the former Soviet
Union countries that happened after the fall of Communism in the early 90s
and EU status for some of these—basically the Baltic States—has meant that
the traffic has multiplied into a relentless convoy that sends tremors
throughout the whole town. Not surprisingly, the residents find it
unbearable and they argue that the by-pass would rescue them from the
torture, which frequently involves them being killed in road accidents as
well. Mention of the EU and the ecology groups that have thwarted the
construction of the new road, is like spitting in their faces.

From the other side there is an equally strong case, because building a
road in the valley could disprupt natural life there terminally and create
a precedent that Europe becomes just the same anti-environmental terrorist
that the USA is often alleged to be. Once this road ploughs through the
forest and disperses the wolves, birds and other animals hitherto living
there to narrower corners of habitation, the argument goes, what is stop
other initiatives turning beauty into the deadly and dull usefulness of
concrete?

So the EU/ecologist coalition have devised an alternative road-plan
that will go the other longer way round and avoid touching the Rospuda
Valley, and the trucks will get to Germany and beyond without hurting a
rare species of wildlife. But this will in turn collapse most of the
villages that exist in its proposed wake into extinction, the government
and the locals insist, making it impossible to cultivate the land they
have fed themselves by for generations. The vitriol the mostly elderly
locals aimed at Brussels during our conversations suggested a vitality
they have regained in the light of the departure of so many younger, and
they intend to fight.

You cannot see them winning, though, because their ideal is ultimately
parochial, not universal. In their view, their families and way of life
are under threat but these are anyway disappearing with every moment as
their sons and daughters make their exit further West. Ultimately, there
will be no-one left to till the fields.

But then this will in itself become the environmental disaster the
bureacrats in Brussels are avowedly working so hard to avoid. Ultimately,
nature is best served by man’s benign interaction with it so that it
flourishes, and the villagers in north-east Poland know this fact
viscerally. They also know keenly that EU membership could be the death of
them.